More Swim Team

Isn't she cute?!? As mentioned before, swim team takes up a lot of our time. Crazy thing is, we are loving it! Monday night, Madeline attended her first meet. It was a "B" meet which means anyone can swim. "A" meets are more competitive, take place on Saturday mornings, and you have to be asked by the coach to participate.

Here is a little run down of our time spent on swim team just this week. The Monday night meet was from 5 to 8:30, yes, three and a half hours, and Madeline swam a total of about 80 seconds. Remember, this is in addition to 5 practices a week in the morning. She also attended an extra stroke and turn clinic Wed. evening and had team pictures taken Thursday morning. Today is Friday, and we'll be at a swim team potluck dinner tonight. And, guess where we'll be tomorrow at 7 am . . . at the "A" meet!!! Madeline's coach wants her to swim butterfly this weekend. She is so proud and excited! She still wants to swim freestyle in Monday's meet too, and the cycle continues. Yes, we basically have swim team every day!

We're Home!

Our closing last Thursday went very smoothly, and . . . . . . we have been living in our new home for almost a week!!!

We are exhausted but loving everything about our new place.  There are too many "pluses" to mention!

It was 100 degrees last Friday when we moved.  Of course it was because it was 100 when we moved last summer, too. Apparently, we only want to move heavy boxes and furniture when there are heat advisories, lol. We did pay movers, but it was  a ton of work on our part, too.

Since then, we've slowly been unpacking and making Home Depot runs, and we are starting to feel settled in. :)

It is a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood, and after so many months of looking, it still feels surreal to be living in our home. We are so thankful our other contracts did not work out since this home is truly the best fit for our family (in too many ways to mention!!). We keep feeling the need to pinch ourselves. We love our new home so much!!

Leah loves it, too. She literally just rolled around in the grass the first day we were here. It's perfect.

Closing

We are scheduled to close on our new home this Thursday, and we are crossing our fingers that everything goes through smoothly. After two months of anticipation, it's hard believe we are only three days away. This is our future living room with the seller's furniture still in place. We love how big this room is and the gorgeous hardwood floors.  Although we are not looking forward to the work of moving, we cannot wait to be settled in our new home.

Swim Team

Madeline really wanted to join a swim team this year, and it has been quite a commitment!  She has practice five days and week, plus meets. Whew! It has been a challenge to get her there after school each day (Leah has made the biggest sacrifice with many 12 hour stretches alone at home), and now that she has morning practices, I will rely on family and friends to get her there while I attend teacher work days and a week long training. The good news is  . . .  she loves it!!! We went to her time trials yesterday, and it was pretty exciting listening to the announcers and watching her swim. I am still trying to figure how it all works with the heats, events, numbers, and how to get her her team swim cap. We're figuring this one out as we go, but she is having a blast which makes it worth it.

Free style is her best stroke. Her coach said she had the best time in her age group for this event.  We find out tomorrow is her times qualify her the "A" or the "B" meets. So much to learn and figure out!

Cardboard Boat Regatta

A couple of weekends ago, we went to watch some cardboard boat races at a nearby lake. The event brought back many memories!  Aunt Jessie participated in this event several times during her teenage years. Kent helped out rowing when he was 19, and they had their picture in the local paper.

It's fun to look at all the creative boat designs and to predict which ones will sink and which ones will float. It was really funny watching all the kids attempt to row in an efficient manner. We shared a lot of laughs at this event.

Madeline wants to participate next year.  She'll need some volunteers if anyone is interested in building or racing her boat. Start drawing up your plans!